Gramaticalization And English Modal Perfect

This M.A. thesis presents an elaborate analysis of grammaticalization, synthesizesevery kind of theoiy, and makes out a model to explain the evolution of language. And itutilizes this model to analyze English modal perfect. This thesis is composed of fivechapters:Chapter 1 offers a brief introduction to the research topic. It also presents thesignificance, hypothesis and methods of current research. Gramniaticalization is actuallyequal to Chinese "thi Ci Xu Hua" Since Meillet's book Linguistique historique etlinguistique genera/e first introduced the term "grammaticalization" it has received muchattention. Meiliet's sense of grammaticalilzation includes the process by which a wordbecomes a clitic, an affix, and a synchronically unalyzable part of another morpheme; italso includes the process of phonological reduction and semantic bleaching.Chapter II lays out the framework of grammaticalization. At first, it explains andevaluates the research of grammaticalization systematically. The paradigm ofgrammaticalization is that the open-class item changes to closed-class items. Thegrammaticalization forms have more abstract and more subjective semantic content, aswell a~ reduced phonological forms. At the same time, it lists out some characteristicsymptoms of gr~nimaticalization, which the observer can use as a kind of field guide inidentifying cases of granimaticalization. Cases in which many of the characteristicfeatures occur together are easily recognizable as grammaticalization. However, as withmost natural phenomena, the usually co-occurring features do not always all appeartogether. Thus many cases of changes are not instantly identifiable. Many linguistics try tofind a more precise definition. It also list out some achievement of graniniaticalization.Chapter III has a study of some principles of grammaticalization. It includes: layering,divergence, specialization, consistence and de-catogorialization. These principles can helpus to recognize cases of grammaticalization. They characterize the aspects of change ingeneral, and are not distinctive for grammaticalization.Chapter IV reanalyze the English mQdal perfect. The case is made that have isbecoming more tighfly bound to the modal. So that in would've done, for example,would've is becoming a distinct unit, separating from done.Chapter V is the conclusion. It briefly reviews the methods, findings andachievements of the whole research. It provides new linguistic evidence of a change inprogress in American English, namely, a reanalysis of the modal perfect construction. Thischange is significant to linguistics because it is not just a newly coined word or a newvariant pronunciation, but rather it involved the grammatical fabric of the language.